Dell is announcing a pair of consumer monitors at this year's CES. Each SKU uses an HDR-ready IPS panel, which covers over 85% of the DCI-P3 color space and does so with up to 600 cd/m2 peak brightness. As far as I can tell, the only technical difference between the panels is that the 24-inch one has a 1080p resolution, while the 27-inch one has a 1440p resolution.

As for a possible difference: the 27-inch is also listed as being VESA certified DisplayHDR 400, which means that it will provide at least 400 nits of brightness in HDR content. I’m not sure why the 24-inch is not listed as DisplayHDR 400, because it has the same backlight, but that could be something as simple as “one finished the certification process before the other”.

Regardless, the main features of this monitor is that it’s bright, it’s thin, it has a thin bezel, and it is HDR-ready. If that is what you’re looking for, then consider these monitors when they launch on February 6th. The 24-inch (S2419HM) has an MSRP of $299.99 while the 27-inch (S2719DM) has an MSRP of $499.99.

Although their Keynote presentation tonight at CES is all about automotive technology, that hasn't stopped NVIDIA from providing us with a few gaming-related announcements this week. The most interesting of which is what NVIDIA is calling "Big Format Gaming Displays" or BFGDs (get it?!).

Along with partners ASUS, Acer, and HP, NVIDIA has developed what seems to be the ultimate living room display solution for gamers.

Based on an HDR-enabled 65" 4K 120Hz panel, these displays integrate both NVIDIA G-SYNC variable refresh rate technology for smooth gameplay, as well as a built-in NVIDIA SHIELD TV set-top box.

In addition to G-SYNC technology, these displays will also feature a full direct-array backlight capable of a peak luminance of 1000-nits and conform to the DCI-P3 color gamut, both necessary features for a quality HDR experience. These specifications put the BFGDs in line with the current 4K HDR TVs on the market.

Unlike traditional televisions, these BFGDs are expected to have very low input latencies, a significant advantage for both PC and console gamers.

Integration of the SHIELD TV means that these displays will be more than just an extremely large PC monitor, but rather capable of replacing the TV in your living room. The Android TV operating system means you will get access to a lot of the most popular streaming video applications, as well as features like Google Assistant and NVIDIA GameStream.

Personally, I am excited at the idea of what is essentially a 65" TV, but optimized for things like low input latency. The current crop of high-end TVs on the market cater very little to gamers, with game modes that don't turn off all of the image processing effects and still have significant latency.

It's also interesting to see companies like ASUS, Acer, and HP who are well known in the PC display market essentially entering the TV market with these BFGD products.

Stay tuned as for eyes-on impression of the BFGD displays as part of our CES 2018 coverage!

Update: ASUS has officially announced their BFGD offering, the aptly named PG65 (pictured below). We have a meeting with ASUS this week, and we hope to get a look at this upcoming product!

The ThinkVision P32u is a 32-inch IPS display with a 3840x2160 resolution 300 cd/m2 brightness, and 99.5 percent Adobe RGB color gamut. It includes two HDMI 2.0 ports, one full-size DisplayPort 1.2, and two Thunderbolt 3 ports for passthrough capability.

Both monitor stands support height adjustment, tilt, and swivel. The ThinkVision X24 is priced at $249 and will be available this month. The ThinkVision P32u is priced at $1349 and launches in March.

With the help of OCAT and PresentMon, OCC have taken a serious look into the effect V-Sync has on latency in a variety of scenarios. They chose to use Serious Sam as the platform to test the differences various methods of applying V-Syn have on the performance of a GTX 1080 and Vega 64. Windows 10 also offers a challenge, as you now have to be aware if you are playing a game in proper fullscreen or as a borderless window. This all adds up to a long article, but is also perfect to demonstrate the best way to ensure gaming without any tearing.

"I am not completely sure if a conclusion is really necessary for this article, but why not? As is perhaps not surprising, playing in a Borderless window under DirectX 11 results in the highest frame latency, because of omnipresent Desktop Window Manager's double buffering."

Non-profit standards association VESA has put forth a new open standard called DisplayHDR for defining HDR specifications and performance for PC laptop and desktop LCDs. The new test specification, dubbed Display HDR 1.0, defines a transparent testing methodology and definitions along with specifying three tiers of HDR system performance that will identify displays as being certified for minimum, mid-range, and high-end HDR with their respective badges of DisplayHDR 400, DisplayHDR 600, and DisplayHDR 1000. Consumers will be able to easily identify which panels have HDR and how they stack up.

The new HDR standard was devised by VESA with input from over two dozen of its member companies including major OEMs of displays, panels, graphics cards, CPUs, display drivers, and color calibration providers. DisplayHDR is reportedly a fully open and transparent standard with automated tools that end users can download and run to verify the results for themselves. The standard includes three peak luminance tests, two contrast measurement tests (native and local dimming), color testing and validation of BT.709 and DCI-P3 color gamuts, bit-depth requirement tests (see below), and HDR backlight response time measurements.

DisplayHDR 400 represents the minimum entry-level tier of HDR per the VESA specification and specifies that a LCD display must feature at least 400 nits brightness (both short, local bursts and full screen flashes), 8-bit color depth, HDR-10, and global dimming. VESA notes that many non-HDR displays that advertise as supporting 8-bit colors, it is actually a 6-bit panel that uses a dithering algorithm to achieve a simulated 8-bits. DisplayHDR specifies true 8-bit at a minimum, and for DisplayHDR 600 and DisplayHDR 1000 displays must achieve 10-bit depth using 8-bit panels combined with 2-bit dithering at a minimum.

Display and PC manufacturers have reportedly had their hands on the DisplayHDR test specification for some time now and are working on validating their displays so that they can offer products with the DisplayHDR logos. New product announcements and demonstrations are expected during CES 2018 next month with DisplayHDR compatible products showing up as early as Q1 2018. VESA notes that while DisplayHDR currently only targets LCDs, it hopes to extend the open standard to include OLED displays in the future.

I think this is a good thing as there is a lot of confusing and conflicting advertising out there when it comes to HDR. A vendor neutral specification and badge that can also be independently tested may be just what the display market needs to push HDR into the mainstream.

Acer announced their PE320QK professional display several months ago, but it is now available. Before we get too far into the specifications, and there are some things that need to be discussed about them, the MSRP is $1199.99 USD, but it’s apparently above that in practice. The third-party seller on Newegg, TELeasy, is currently sold out at a listed price of $1330.17.

As for the specifications? Here’s where it gets interesting. First, the press release states that the PE320QK can do 130% of sRGB. This is nonsense. sRGB is a color space that you calibrate down into. You cannot cover more than it, because otherwise you wouldn’t be calibrated to it. Either your potential color space covers the whole gamut, or it doesn’t. It doesn’t matter what else it covers, just that it doesn’t miss anything inside the fenced-in area that the spec cares about. In fact, saying that it’s 130% makes me question whether it will end up less than 100% of the post-calibration gamut.

That’s not a concern that you want to have with a $1200 monitor.

The other issue is with the contrast ratio, although this is a number that every display manufacturer, especially TVs, screw with. It is listed as 100,000,000 : 1. Yeah… no. That number is meaningless. Again, it hasn’t meant anything for over a decade at this point, so I can’t really knock on Acer too much for this.

That said, the monitor is probably good. I just can’t quantify how and why from the information we’re given. I do like the light-hood flaps on the side, though.

This year has seen a lot of change in the technology used in monitors, with 4K, adaptive refresh rates above 120Hz and HDR becoming common features. These new features did not exist when DisplayID first replaced the veteran Extended Display Identification Data and so there were no overarching standards governing their implementation. We have also seen the advent of consumer VR and AR which also lacks a standard for companies to follow.

The new DisplayID 2.0 standard is specifically for these new devices, with the previous standards remaining to govern the compatibility of legacy products. The new standard describes how manufacturers can use the modular data block design to send clear information about their devices capabilities to the hardware powering the display. If followed this will greatly enhance the compatibility of variable refresh rate technology, screens with 4K or higher resolution and wearable displays.

This will help you avoid experiencing the frustrations early adopters have experienced and will hopefully restore displays to a state where they simply work when plugged into a compatible GPU. We won't see huge jumps in performance but this will certainly help in the development of 4K displays with high refresh rates, once the power of our GPUs catches up.

The AGON sacrifices 4k resolution to provide refresh rates of up to 144Hz; instead the 31.5" curved display offers a 1440p resolution, demonstrating its focus on gaming. The monitor also includes a QuickSwitch control, a physical keyboard which you can control the settings on your monitor, an extremely effective alternative to navigating an OSD with the buttons build into monitors. Kitguru tested the monitor out found it to be great for large screen gaming, but perhaps not for movie viewing as all the presets are gaming focused. The inputs were another point of contention, while comprehensive with two HDMI 2.0, two DisplayPort 1.2, VGA, headphone and mic jacks as well as two USB 3.0 ports, the placement is not the most convenient for some. Drop by for a look.

"Curved screens are really starting to come of age for gaming. We are seeing more and more of these, in many different sizes, and the latest to grace the KitGuru testing table is the AOC AGON AG322QCX. It’s pretty sizeable at 31.5in, but unlike many larger screens it’s still packed with features to please the serious gamer."

ASUS just announced the $350 ROG Strix XG27VQ, a 27" 1080p display with a 1800R curve, using a VA panel capable of a refresh rate up to 144Hz. It is a Freesync display with an adaptive sync rate between 48-140Hz making it a great addition to a system using a Vega or other AMD GPU.

ASUS advertises a GtG response time of 4ms and a maximum brightness of 300 cd/m2, with HDMI v1.4, DisplayPort 1.2 and Dual-link DVI-D inputs. They have continued to place Aura RGB behind the screen as well as projecting below the monitor stand, with several patterns you can choose from. In addtion to using the OSD to manage profiles and settings you can install their DisplayWidget, to control features such as ASUS' GameVisual, App Sync, and Blue Light Filter.

The 27-inch VP2785-4K offers the most impressive color specs of the group, with 99% Adobe RGB and 96% DCI-P3 from its Ultra HD (3840x2160) panel.

"This 27-inch 4K Ultra HD monitor delivers unmatched color accuracy for photographers, graphic designers, content developers, and other design pros and multimedia creatives. That means you get true images with vivid colors from real life, to camera, to screen. With USB 3.1 Type C, HDMI 2.0, DisplayPort, and Mini DisplayPort 2.1 connectivity options, the VP2785-4K can be used with a variety of external devices as well."

Finally we have the VP3268-4K, a 32-inch Ultra HD monitor with an IPS panel and minimal bezel design.

"The newest member of the VP68 family, this monitor balances ultra-high definition and a large 32-inch display to deliver the ultimate in detail, clarity, and screen real estate – perfect for limitless creativity. With a SuperClear® IPS panel and 4-sided frameless design, this monitor provides a near-seamless viewing experience ideal for multi-display setups. It also includes HDMI 2.0, DisplayPort, Mini-DisplayPort, and USB hubs for flexible connectivity to a variety of computing devices and peripherals."

ViewSonic states that "all three of these VP series monitors are factory calibrated to deliver an amazing Delta E" of <2, making them ready for color-critical work out of the box. The monitors are available now, with list prices (USD) as follows: